The Role of "Home as Haven" Ideology in Child Care Use

During the last three decades the types and amounts of child care used by families have changed dramatically. Yet, little information is available about how parents choose a child care setting, or the role that attitudes about home, motherhood, and work play in the utilization of one type of care setting versus another. The purpose of this project is to compare the home as haven ideology of mothers who use family day care versus center-based day care for their children. One hundred eighty-four mothers who utilize child care completed questionnaires which assessed home as haven ideology, type of care utilized, work constraints, and background factors. A logit analysis confirms the hypothesis that mothers who use family day care are more likely to believe in home as haven. Discussion centers around the policy implications of these findings and the issue of the advisability of deregulation of family day care.